Connecting a concrete layer to the wood substrate in a manner that shear stress is transferred there between is a known method of improving the structural resistance of the so formed built-up system. In the resulting system the two components act as a composite structure having greater section properties than the sum of the section properties of the two components taken independently. Various considerations influence the design of such built-up system. Perhaps the most important one of these is the performance of the structure, typically, in terms of amount of load it can support using a given amount of material and/or limited dimensions. However, the other considerations can be very significant as well, such as seismic performance and cost of the components or of their assembly for instance.
While built-up systems having connectors were satisfactory to a certain degree, there always remains room for improvement.